2010

Simply the best. Obvious though it might sound, that was our aim for this year's Best of Atlanta — to feature nothing but the city's most exemplary neighborhoods, bloggers, artists, galleries, bands, bars, restaurants, chefs, salons and shops, without the shackles of CL's traditional categories or our past affinity for overarching themes.

So we took it up a notch, not only by focusing on the truly cool or justifiably trendy, but by filling the entire site with our Critics Picks and your voted-upon favorites. In other words, while you won't find regular features such as the Blotter or our editorial page, you get an issue packed with award-winners worth your attention.

You'll notice that, along with our traditional Critics Picks, we've created special, critics-curated categories under which we've grouped the best in this year's public art, strip clubs, albums and so forth. And just like every year, we were amazed by your ability to tip us off to undiscovered gems such as Atlanta's best college bar or affordable day care, its most commendable visual artist or blogger — all while cracking us up at your pithy suggestions for winners such as Best Power Couple and Best Shooting Range. We've highlighted a few of your funniest votes in every section.

Speaking of how great you are, you helped us beat last year's record with more than 9,200 votes cast! That's what we call power to the people.

So, a big congrats — to you, to our winners and to our tireless staff. Without further ado, our 2010 Best of Atlanta edition. Simple is powerful, indeed.